Within the Reich Chancellery
Bruno sat at the table still. Long after Reimann had left.
The folder was thin, but the weight of its contents bent the light around Bruno's thoughts.
Three pages.
One black-and-white photograph, grainy, aerial, hastily deblurred by military analysts.
A desert.
A scarred patch of New Mexico nothingness surrounded by fences and railroad spurs.
"PROJECT: MANHATTAN"
Location: Site Y (Los Alamos)
Designation: Prototype nuclear implosion research. American-led. British and French scientific assistance. Now supported by exiled regimes.
Bruno read every word. Twice.
No need for speculation. No need for paranoia.
It was all here, calculations, early experiments, the names of physicists, and most crucially:
Progress: Primitive. Underpowered. Disorganized. No projected success before 1948, potentially even later.
He set the page down.
The fire crackled in the hearth.
"So… the Americans chase the sun."
